This invention relates to sharpening the rise time of high voltage, high current pulses.
The interest in nanosecond high voltage pulse generators is rapidly increasing. At the present time, they are used in quantum physics, in nuclear physics, in particle accelerators, in x-ray generators, in high-speed photography, etc. The possibility of applying nanosecond generators to solve certain problems in experimental physics such as the production of powerful pulse lasers, strong-current accelerators of charged particles, and fast heating of plasma is of extreme interest. These pulses are also of interest for radar. The state of the art is covered by a book "Formation of Nanosecond Pulses of High Voltage" by G. A. Mesyats, A. S. Nasibor and V. V. Kremnev, translation available from National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va. 22151, as document No. AD 733 130.
A circuit using spark gaps and a type of triggering is shown in the above mentioned book in FIG. 5-6 described on pages 160-162 of the translation.
A conventional (silicon) solid state device in a pulsesharpening circuit would, because of its 100 to 1000 picofarad capacitance, cause intolerable pre-switching currents. Pulsesharpening with gaseous devices is unsatisfactory because of the long and uncertain switch-on delay (several nanoseconds) with these devices. Therefore pulses from conventional power sources for lasers and radars are not sharpened--they have a much longer than optimal risetime.